Hi all although i have had a fish tank for nearly two years i still consider myself a newby and because of the advice i got from THE TROPICAL TANK my fish a doing well sorry very well. My reason for this post is that i am changing to sand in december the 23rd to be exact, i have gravel at the moment i have had a couple of fish die because it seemed that they had a bit of gravel stuck in ther mouth, i have read a lot about sand would this be a better medium and why? also could anyone recomend a way of cleaning the sand ?

I tend to prefer sand in general, partly because it looks more natural and probably feels more natural to many bottom dwellers like catfish and loaches, but also because I find it cleaner. With gravel, debris tends to work its way down into it, whereas with sand it tend to stay on top where it can be easily siphoned off if not picked up by the filter circulation.

To clean sand I just hover over it with the siphon tube when doing water changes (rather than actually pushing down into the substrate as with a gravel siphon). A plain piece of tubing works well, or you can use the tubing from a gravel siphon set with the wider end bit removed.

Bear in mind that if you change the substrate on an established tank, you will lose some of the biological maturity, so its wise to cut back on feeding a little and monitor the water quality. Also, don't add any new fish for a couple of weeks until things have settled down.

The only situation in which sand is definitely not suitable, is when using an undergravel filter, as it's just too fine and would be drawn through the undergravel filter plate.

Hi thanks for the advice, I am thinking perhaps removing half the of the gravel and to replace it with sand and to do the change a week after I do a partial water change, I feel this should limit any stress to the fish.